{Penang, Malaysia] Dinner at Firewood, Pitt Street

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Firewood is a 12-day-old eatery specialising in grills. The sleek restaurant occupies a historic building within George Town’s UNESCO-listed world heritage zone. The 116-year-old building used to house the offices of the Penang Opium and Spirits Farm, which were responsible for issuing licenses for opium dens, as well as facilities for the processing of raw opium in the early part of the 20th-century. The opium farms themselves were located in India.

Fronted by two young chefs, JJ Lew and Ker Yang Hao, formerly of Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen in Marina Bay Sands Singapore, the kitchen churned out a line of surprisingly tasty offerings which were much better than those we’d had in other similar spots in George Town.

Appetisers
Charcoal-grilled Caesar salad - this dish turned out to be my fave for the evening. It’s quite difficult to find authentic Caesar salad in Malaysia, so Firewood’s pretty competent attempt was very much welcomed.

Charred white sweet corn, with Bearnaise sauce and parmesan - lovely flavours, but quite difficult to eat, as the corn were thickly-slathered with the sauces.

Charcoal-grilled miso aubergine, with spring onions, coriander and lime - pretty sure I first tasted this at Nobu quite a while back. Very good.

Grilled Japanese Harima oysters, with Swiss cheese and ikura (salmon roe) - very fresh oysters, but the least-impressive amongst the dishes we had this evening.

Grilled barramundi, with charred lemon and a “special sauce”.

Jamaican jerk chicken, with mango salsa and Peri-peri sauce. Firewood’s rendition resulted in a rather Chinese-tasting “char-siew”-style chicken - which was probably directed at its mainly-ethnic Chinese client base here in Penang.
The Peri-peri sauce was hot enough to scald one’s tongue. My lips still felt burnt long after the meal!

Angus sirloin steak - we ordered medium-rare, but the steak was overcooked.

Mushroom tagliatelle with Manchego cheese, truffle oil and parsley - tasty, truffle-scented creamy pasta dish, done to sheer perfection here.

Desserts
Charcoal cream tiramisu - overly-sweet, and not creamy enough for me.

Deep-fried bao with semifreddo and condensed milk - absolutely scrumptious. I’ll come back here just for this.

Charcoal-burnt cheesecake with vanilla ice-cream - this was by far one of the best cheesecakes I’d had in a while.

Overall, quite a decent attempt at providing grill house fare. Cooking over open flames gave all their dishes really marvelous, smokey-aromatic flavours.
Service is still rather shaky at best, by a young and inexperienced team. Still, it’s only been 12 days.

Address
Firewood, The Star Pitt Street
15, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling (Pitt Street), 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +6017-989 9246
Operating hours: 12 noon - 2.30pm, 5.30pm to 10pm, Tue to Sun. Closed on Mondays.

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Back to Firewood for lunch today. The eatery looked airier and lighter in daylight.

What we ordered today:
Starters
𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘭-𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘊𝘢𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘥 - I simply cannot get enough of this dish: smokey-aromatic wilted Romaine lettuce, with the creamy Caesar dressing. It’s the best one can find in Penang.

Some minor quibbles - anchovies were almost absent from the dressing, perhaps to accommodate the local Penang palate. Not quite enough Parmigiano-Reggiano nor croutons for me here. And worse bit: the soft-boiled (instead of poached) egg was actually refrigerator cold - merely room temperature would’ve sufficed.

𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘱 - this was good, and the truffle oil complemented the flavours of the mushrooms perfectly.

𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘱 - nice balance of flavours. This is one of the best tomato soups in town.
Note: Both soups did not come with any bread, nor were there any bread-basket on each table.

Mains
𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘰-𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘬 - I ordered this dish because it reminded me of the legendary miso cod dish served at Nobu. Unfortunately, the one here had hardly any discernible miso flavour.

𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘳-𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 - I like fish and chips with beer batter. The one here was passable, although the batter-crust was thicker and stodgier than I’d have liked.

𝘞𝘢𝘨𝘺𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘧 𝘣𝘢𝘰, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘢𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘴𝘦, 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 - absolutely loved this dish. The Wagyu beef patty was done medium as requested. It was perfect.

Dessert
𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘭-𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘪𝘤𝘦-𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 - the creamiest, richest cheesecake in Penang! I loved this, and would come back here just for this.

[ZivBnd (Ziv)]

Interesting about ordering Medium Rare and getting what looks to be Medium. I ordered Prime Rib and earlier in the month, a Ribeye. Asked for both to be done Medium Rare. The Prime Rib was Medium Well, which I almost understand because of the way Prime Ribs are prepared. Still irked me though. But the Ribeye was served Medium which irked me even more because there is no excuse for that. Most people that like steaks think that getting a steak done Medium reduces the quality of the meal. Medium Well is worse.
I am not sure why chefs overcook meat, when you can put a steak back in the over to cook it some more but there is no way to un-cook a good piece of steak that is over-cooked. I used to order lean cuts Rare, but changed to Med Rare after getting a few that were supposed to be Med Rare but were closer to Bleu/Blue.

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Back at Firewood last night, after a 3-year hiatus. It joined Penang’s list of Michelin-Selected restaurants in the Michelin Guide to Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025.

Chef-Patron, Ker Yang Hao, has matured quite a bit since our first meeting three years back, and also much more confident in presenting edgier creations these days.

He’s also got a new sous chef, Herinthra Vathumalai (right), doing much of the heavy lifting nowadays.

We were here for a special 5-course wine pairing dinner featuring wines from Masi of Verona, Italy. Marco Zauli, the Export Manager of Masi:

Brioche toast with rendang butter. One of the new-fangled creations - rendang butter was a bit too assertive, but I liked the concept of fusing local (native) Malay flavors into French butter.

Appetiser: 1 Kedah tiger prawns with Nyonya sauce. Wasn’t expecting our first course, after a curried bread start, to be another spiced dish. But this one was fruity and light - reminiscent of Penang curry Kapitan with accents of galangal, Thai holy basil, kaffir lime leaves, torch ginger and fresh turmeric. Very surprisingly, it proved to be a perfect complement to the Pinot Grigio.

Appetiser 2: Norwegian sea trout in coconut broth. - a tiny bit over-cooked, so no hint of pinkness nor moistness in the centre of the square cut of trout. The coconut broth added a touch of richness.

Main 1: Grilled Perak duck with charred grapes. - perfectly executed - the duck meat pink and with an exact doneness. The charred grapes provided sweet explosions of flavor that complemented the duck-meat.

Main 2: Firewood charcoal-grilled sirloin (MB 6-7). Firewood’s forte - marvelous smoky-delicious steak. Stuff of dreams.

Dessert: Pandan panna cotta, with Gula Melaka & pomegranate. Inspired by the Malay onde-onde. A bit too “native” for me here - I was hoping for more Italian-inspired items in keeping with the wines’ pedigree.

Very good dinner overall nonetheless.